the first tennis major of the year, the australian open, starts on monday and the british number one johanna konta looks in good form. she's into the final of the sydney international. she beat former wimbledon finalist eugenie bouchard in straight sets, to reach her third wta final. konta will now play world number three agnieszka radwa nska. konta, who is ranked at number ten in the world, made it to the semifinals at the australian open last year. also going well in sydney is the british number three dan evans, he's reached his first atp tour semifinal. he had to come from a set down again, just like the last round. he beat the top seed dominic thiem, his first victory over a top ten player. andy murray is already in melbourne — he's been warming up there ahead of the australian open draw, which takes place in the early hours of friday morning. it'll be the first time in murray's career, that he'll be the top seed at a grand slam. laura robson and tara moore won't be

in the draw after losing in the draw, after losing their qualifying matches. the man who rode red rum to two of his three grand national wins, brian fletcher, has died. he was 69. fletcher won the national as a 20—year—old in 1968 aboard red alligator, but will be best remembered for his back—to—back wins at aintree on red rum in the seventies. england captain alastair cook will meet director of cricket andrew strauss tomorrow, but no decision on his role as test captain is expected to be made. cook admitted to having "questions" over his position during the recent 4—0 series defeat in india. our reporter tim peach is with the one day squad in mumbai. the meeting is part of the

debriefing process that england hold after every series. there have been calls for cook to resign, though it is understood we will not hear any decision from him until next month. england's one—day team have been playing here in mumbai. jonny ba i rstow playing here in mumbai. jonny bairstow gave his backing to his test captain. you are questioning a guy with an 11,000 test runs, the most decorated england test match we've ever had. and to be questioning him so much about whether or not he should stay on as captain and this bat and the other, i think it's up to him whether or not he wants to stay on. —— this, that and the other. i'm sure when he makes his decision it will be the right one for him and the team. jonny bairstow speaking after england's heavy defeat in the final warm after england's heavy defeat in the finalwarm up after england's heavy defeat in the final warm up match before the one—day series that begins on sunday. a golden duck for captain morgan.

he's only scored three runs in the two warm up he's only scored three runs in the two warm up games. he's only scored three runs in the two warm up games. he will be looking for some on sunday. rory mcilroy is one off the pace at the south african open after a five—under—par 67 in his first competitive round of the year. that's all from sportsday. coming up in a moment, the papers. hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are tim collins, a former mp and director a former mp and director

of the bell pottinger communications agency, and pauljohnson, who's deputy editor of the guardian. tomorrow's front pages, starting with: the daily express says new snow chaos is on the way. it predicts britain will be plunged into the deep freeze next week. the metro also leads on the snowy conditions. its headline is "white out — travel misery as snow sweeps britain". the telegraph leads on britain's role in the trump dossier. it quotes an american source as saying the british government gave permission to the fbi to speak to the former british spy who compiled the documents. the financial times says thatjust one day after heavily fining volkswagen, the us government is turning its fire on fiat chrysler. the daily mirror leads on the nhs, and a photo of a boy lying on two chairs. his case was referred to byjeremy corbyn yesterday. the time gives a warning that any transitional brexit arrangements could leave britain under the rule

of europeanjudges could leave britain under the rule of european judges for years. —— the time. the daily mail: trump blames britain for sex storm. russia's really unhappy with how this is panning out. —— kremlin blames britain. russia is delighted, particularly if they can drive a wedge between the united states and the united kingdom. the trouble is of course, these are things where there are some presidents. back in i992i remember there was a totally inaccurate report thatjohn major's government had helped the critics of bill clinton, and that coloured and damaged the us and uk relationship. i suspect mr trump will be hopefully being advised that theresa may did not authorise all this sort of

stuff, but the last thing we need is the sense that the uk was complicit in some way in trying to damage mr trump. same thing on the telegraph. the british role is fascinating here. the person who put the dossier together, he is ex—mi6 and the russians say, you are never xml —— ex—mi6. he left the service is about seven years ago. ex—mi6. he left the service is about seven years ago. he once ex—mi6. he left the service is about seven years ago. he once said to a journalist, do you know who i am? the journalist said, no, journalist, do you know who i am? thejournalist said, no, he journalist, do you know who i am? the journalist said, no, he said thatis the journalist said, no, he said that is the way i like it. but illusion has gone for ever! eye—macro illusion has gone for ever! eye— macro the illusion has gone for ever! eye—macro the suggestion here is that he was hired to find information, and what he found was so information, and what he found was so important, he thought, but that is what he passed it onto the fbi. one of the things that to be honest honest doesn't seem to be right to me is that donald trump has done

something in his private life that is so scandalous that he would be subject to blackmail by the kremlin. have you ever found anything that donald trump has done that he is ever embarrassed about? there are huge numbers of things much more damaging than what is supposedly in this dossier, and he is totally shameless. he cannot be blackmailed because he has no sense of shame. this british element, with an mi6 officer, who has a track record, there is also the involvement of an ex—british ambassador to moscow. you can see that this is how the document got through the hands of john mccain and into the fbi and onto the table of barack obama, because of this credibility of the figures who are involved, and they are british figures. i'm not saying about the contents of the dossier, but is a different thing. but again, if you remember george w bush ten years ago made a statement to the us congress relying on british

intelligence, —— allegations about people scurrying around trying to get you —— nuclear capability in africa, it turned out to be false. we have to be careful but the relationship is not dented. and we have to be careful about which figures we referred to, it is also difficult to tell the moment. no doubt the most famous dossier since 2003's "dodgy dossier". this is the" dirty dossier". the daily telegraph, first snow, then floods. stand—by for tidal surge. parts of the east coast, people are having to leave their homes. for most people this winter's been pretty mild so far. two we have this sequence of army on stand—by, army on alert. but it's

also been the first time i've seen the phrase "thunder snow". as in like thunderstorms but snow instead. although it's got the usual sort of reaction from north of scotland etc and the north of england, saying, gosh, call but snow? it is more like mild sleep. we don't count it as snow until it is up to knees! —— mild sleep. i am with paul on this, i've lived in cumbria. this is the sort of stuff that the south—east appears unable to cope with, the sort of stuff but the north of england and scotland deal with all the time, and it is actually winter. why do we get shocked but january and fabry are called months and we get floods and snow? what is important though is that some people will be worried about the hamster like, and hope they will be able to cope. —— january and february.

like, and hope they will be able to cope. -- january and february. the guardian, europe awaits as theresa may commerce ‘s keynote speech on brexit. i wonder how much better informed they will be afterwards? theresa may has promised a speech next tuesday on brexit, so we will get clarity perhaps. perhaps we would go beyond "brexit means brexit close quote. and we might even go beyond "red, white and blue brexit." we might get britain's position. but the other 27 members might save you can think what you like, but it depends what we are prepared to give you. but she has given some pretty strong indications already. if your bid to insist on taking back control of your borders and not being subject to the european court of justice, that means it cannot be in

the eu single market. i hope she will say we will bring back democratic self—government, but we are still going to be european and eat french cheese and eat at italian restau ra nts. eat french cheese and eat at italian restaurants. the reality is we will still be europeans. the important thing is the price of mr kipling cakes and marmite is going up! by now we were supposed to have the global recession, world war three, house prices collapsing... where we will —— when were we going to have world war three? prime minister at the time, who seemed oddly incapable of saying anything that was true. and last week the chairman of hsbc said we are going to see a jenga type collapse of financialjobs.m

europe is silly enough to cut themselves off from the only financial services sector on the side of the atlantic, it will do more damage to them than to us. which is why it won't. i'm not sure thatis which is why it won't. i'm not sure that is what i said, but thank you! the daily mirror. picture of our little boy on the front page, "five hours ina little boy on the front page, "five hours in a knee without a bed". —— a&e. this is a message from this little boy's mother after her son had to wait many hours to see a doctor even though it was suspected he had meningitis. i think this illustrates something that is very stark, there is a real problem in the nhs. apparently there are proposals from a number of people on a cross—party basis that there should be a cross—party analysis of the nhs, because there is a fiction

thatis the nhs, because there is a fiction that is going around for a lot of people on both sides of the political debate that somehow there is plenty of money, the tories said there is plenty of money because the economy is so strong, the labour party say the tories are too mean to spend the money, but in reality there is not enough money to go around. we need a fundamental look at the principles of the nhs on a cross— party at the principles of the nhs on a cross—party basis. however, that story is a victory forjeremy corbyn. he raised this issue at prime minister's question time, and he raised it. simon stevens have been saying this, yet he woke up to headline saying that number ten was losing faith in him and he's had to come out and be quite explicit about the amount of money, he says there are financial pressures, and in 2018, 2019 we will have even less. ina 2018, 2019 we will have even less. in a macro but there will never be enough for the nhs, in a macro but there will never be enough forthe nhs, its in a macro but there will never be enough for the nhs, its demand in a macro but there will never be enough forthe nhs, its demand is infinite. two the government will say we've given them all the money they've asked for, but the nhs and

others will say it is still not enough. don't taxpayers have to make a decision about whether they are prepared to pay more tax specifically for the nhs if you could ring—fenced it that way? specifically for the nhs if you could ring-fenced it that way? we change the balance between the generations. there are many perks for pensions that perhaps should be saying. all we look at the option, can we really continue to afford to have by far the largest overseas aid budget in the western world? maybe we should look after our own first. we could talk about but a bit longer. but we haven't got time. the financial times, m&s leads uk retailers‘ strong season. a number of them doing very well over christmas. some are doing very well. the food file has been well, the web

sales have been good, and some have held up very well. —— footfall. union—macro we haven't had brexit yet... it may be spending world because of the gloom that is over the horizon. the grey dawn of an isolated uk! a self—governing country is always good to be more prosperous, and we seem to be likely to be a more prosperous in the very short term as well. how fabulous is that? fab -- finally, scientists hunt down the switch that turns mild—mannered mice into killers. your subject for the next two minutes is this. this is all about lasers and what happens in the brain. but what we really need to do is dashed back to tell a

mild—mannered man into a killer is to tell a garden editor that exit is working! —— guardian editor. to tell a garden editor that exit is working! -- guardian editor. i'm not sure what this technology is, but it‘s about moving your runs about. but you can switch it on and off. —— moving your runs about. you can encourage the mice to attack both animate objects and inanimate objects —— moving neurons about. it's objects —— moving neurons about. it‘s not obvious what the practical use of this would be, but it‘s interesting nonetheless. the last sentence, "the production of killer zombie mice is not on the agenda". thank heavens, we say! it does say there will be practical applications such as treating neurological diseases. the prime minister was talking earlier this week about

mental health, if some chemical solution could be found about it, that‘s got to be a good thing. solution could be found about it, that's got to be a good thing. will you both come back on and be on together? yellow macro we would love to. —— we would love to. together? yellow macro we would love to. -- we would love to. the market and the other economic edit —— indicators will be turning towards... who will have the last laugh? will pick it up in a couple of weeks. you can see the front pages of the papers online on the bbc website. and if you miss the programme any evening you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. thank you tim collins and pauljohnson, and goodbye. it's

it‘s a wintry night out there, some of us have seen snow, but there will be further wintry showers overnight across more northern and western parts of the uk. very icy night in scotland. and a very, very strong wind. this could well be the scene we re wind. this could well be the scene were you at first thing in the morning. take it steady on the roads and pavements. the gaels will continue to batter the east coast, in fact continue to batter the east coast, infacta continue to batter the east coast, in fact a storm surge running down could affect coastal areas. —— the gales. many places will have a bright, crisp, if chilly day. temperatures only around three or four macro degrees. the chilly theme continues into the start of the weekend, with hard overnight frost and further wintry showers across the north and the west. over the —— all the latest on the warnings can be found, as ever, on the website.

this is bbc news. i‘m martine croxall. the headlines at 11: snow and strong winds are causing disruption across many parts of the uk. homes in eastern england are evacuated following severe flood warnings. there is concern forjust over 3000 properties between the humber and the wash that defences will be breached and it will be flooded. do you vow to give the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? donald trump‘s choice for head of the cia praises the intelligence community, hours after mr trump had criticised them. i have seen their morale through tough times and i have seen them walk through fire to do theirjobs ina walk through fire to do theirjobs in a rational way. the footballing world pays tribute to the former england manager,